ÿþ<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>The eCommerce Analyst- Issue 9</TITLE> <style type="text/css" title="ps"> <!-- a:hover { color: #AC8D27} --> </style> </HEAD> <BODY TEXT="#000000" topmargin="0" marginheight="0" LINK="#0000EE" VLINK="#551A8B" ALINK="#009900"> <br><br> <table border="0" cols=2 width="606" height="131" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" valign="top"> <tr> <td background="../images/bkgd-blue.gif" width="482" height="25"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#000000" size="4"> <b>&nbsp;The eCommerce Analyst"!</b> </td> <td width="118" rowspan="3" valign="top"> <img src="../images/compuglobe-white.jpg" width="118" height="131"> </td> <tr> <td bgcolor="#BFD9FF" height="20"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> "Analysis of the current state and future directions of conducting business online" <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"> <td height=87" valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> <br><font size="2">&nbsp;&nbsp;FREE Monthly Newsletter - March 2000 Volume 2 Issue 9 <br>&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</font><br><br> <a href="#please">Please Forward</a> | <a href="#pleasenote">Please Note</a> | <a href="#in">In This Issue</a> </td> </table> <table width="606" border="0" align="center" bgcolor="ffffff"> <tr> <td> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> <img src="../images/line-blue.gif" border="0" width="600" height="6"> <br><b><a name="please"></a>PLEASE FORWARD</b> <ul> <li> If you are happy with "The eCommerce Analyst" and would like to benefit more and encourage our efforts, please&nbsp; spread the word about it.&nbsp; Recommend our newsletter to one or two of your preferred friends, colleagues or contacts asking them to enroll in our mailing list <a href="http://ecominfocentre.listbot.com">http://ecominfocentre.listbot.com</a>. Thank you!<br><br><center><!-- Start of Recommend-It Code * Do not modify --> <A HREF=http://www.recommend-it.com/p.e?615760 onClick="window.open('http://www.recommend-it.com/p.e?615760', 'RIC','width=415,height=490,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes');return false;"> <IMG SRC="http://graphic.recommend-it.com/bigbutPALM.gif" BORDER=0></A> <!-- End of Recommend-It Code * Do not modify --> </center></li> </ul> <a href="#top"><img src="../images/top-of-page.gif" border="0" align="right"></a><br><img src="../images/line-blue.gif" border="0" width="600" height="6"> <a name="pleasenote"></a><p><b>PLEASE NOTE</b> <ul> <li> eComInfoCenter does NOT make available its subscribers list to other companies. Your email remains private and is never sold. We value each and every subscriber and respect your privacy. You can always <a href="http://ecominfocentre.listbot.com" target="new">unsubscribe or subscribe</a> at anytime. The value of information increases the more it is used! Please feel free to forward <b>The eCommerce Analyst</b>to a friend.</li> </ul> <ul> <li> For our international readers, we recommend using <a href="http://www.babylon.com/" target="_new">Babylon</a>: The Single Click Translator that works on and off line. You may also try to translate this document into any of 24 other languages, with <a href="http://www.tranexp.com/InterTran.cgi">InterTran"!</a>,</li> </ul> <a href="#top"><img src="../images/top-of-page.gif" border="0" align="right"></a><br><img src="../images/line-blue.gif" border="0" width="600" height="6"> <br><b><a name="in"></a>IN THIS ISSUE</b> &nbsp; <p><b>1.&nbsp; <a href="#editors">Editor's paper</a>: Emerging trends in Web Marketing: A quick overview </b><br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;By Slim Baltagi & Pamela Hyder <br><b>2.&nbsp; <a href="#sponsor">Why not sponsor the next issue?</a></b> <br><b>3.&nbsp; <a href="#submission">Article submissions requirements</a></b> <br><b>4.&nbsp; <a href="#Thank">Thank you</a></b> <br><br> <a href="#top"><img src="../images/top-of-page.gif" border="0" align="right"></a><br><img src="../images/line-blue.gif" border="0" width="600" height="6"> <a name="editors"></a><br><b>1. EDITOR'S PAPER</b> <br><br><font size="3"><b>Emerging trends in Web Marketing: A quick overview</b></font><br><br> By Slim Baltagi & Pamela Hyder<br><br> <b>PREVIEW: </b><br> This paper is an attempt to understand some of the emerging trends in Web marketing. It gives you a perspective on what is happening without pretending to fully explain what is shaping today's web marketing. Unfortunately, Web marketing, as practiced today, still does not take into account the unique characteristics of the Web: interactivity, immediacy, network, informative, direct, ... and the unique "Web characteristics" of products, audience and environment. Web marketing still requires more creative ways as we stated in the seventh issue of "The eCommerce Analyst". <br><br> <img src="../images/line-blue.gif" border="0" width="600" height="6"> <table width="600"> <tr> <td> <br> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><font size="3"><b>Marketers mind set</font></b> <ul> <li> <b>The language of marketing is still military</b>, and the enemy is the customer: You target customers; you plan campaigns, killer or cut-throat marketing strategies. You bombard consumers with messages until some of them relent and buy your product. This underlines a mentality still considering the potential <b>customer as an enemy</b>!! A change in the way to interact with consumers is needed as the <b>Web frees them</b> from their traditionally <b>passive role as receivers of marketing communications</b>, gives them much greater control over the information search and acquisition process, and allows them to become <b>active participants in the marketing process</b>.</li> </ul> <p><br><font size="3"><b>People marketing</b></font> <ul> <li> We are witnessing a <b>vast improvement in web marketing techniques </b>over old-fashioned marketing. But are these techniques <b>fully in sync</b> with the <b>consumers needs </b>and their <b>privacy concerns</b>? A pop-up banner simply interrupts the consumer in whatever he is doing. But this technique is still used relentlessly in order to get the consumer attention! Some of these techniques still depend on <b>manipulative approaches to influence the consumer</b>: Ads play on people's emotions and insecurities in order to make them want products they did not need! But the power of the individual consumer is rising exponentially as he can find out anything about vendors. The Web makes it easy to make comparisons. Products and processes should be customized to deliver value to <b>customers as individuals</b>, not as part of a mass market. In Web marketing, unlike traditional off-line marketing, you must build <b>relationships with people</b> before you are able to entice them into hiring you or buying from you. <b>Web Marketing should revolve, not around products, but people</b>.</li> </ul> <p><br><b><font size="3">Micro Marketing</font></b> <ul> <li> An important trend which is picking up steam in retailing is <b>micro marketing</b>. The Internet as a medium provides businesses true <b>one-to-one advertising</b>. Not only will this allow businesses to become more responsive to the information needs of consumers, but it might also allow them to save on advertising costs, if an appropriate Internet strategy is implemented.</li> </ul> <p><br><b><font size="3">Availability of competitively useful information</font></b> <ul> <li> <b>The availability of competitively useful information</b> from Internet sites, competitor customers, executive speeches, press releases, help wanted ads, etc. is <b>staggering</b>. Companies can quickly gather fact based information about everything from competitor financial and product performance, to sales force strengths and weaknesses and new products in the pipeline.</li> </ul> <p><br><b><font size="3">Measuring marketing results</font></b> <ul> <li> The most important marketing measure is results. Because <b>marketing on the Internet is so trackable</b>, that's a metric the Internet is uniquely suited to provide. Marketers using off-line media can only rely on general assumptions about response rates. But online, if you deliver an ad, you can say exactly how many people saw it, exactly how many clicked on it, and exactly how many sales resulted. Big portals like Yahoo and Excite have the scale to invest tens of millions of dollars on technology that will enable them to target ads; they can <b>measure an advertiser's return on investment with a sophistication that old media can't match.</b></li> </ul> <p><br><b><font size="3">Marketing via traditional media</font></b> <ul> <li> For a long time, the buzz from many of the Internet start-ups has been that advertising in the new media is going to put old-media advertising out of business. The Economist reported earlier this year that spending in <b>traditional media by Internet companies</b> has <b>tripled within one year</b>. A report in a U.K. paper indicates that 80% of the advertising by new-media firms is occurring in old media. Other reports in the old media report similar trends.</li> </ul> <p><br><b><font size="3">Enabling technologies</font></b> <ul> <li> Enabling technologies continue to improve and <b>speed up data collection</b>. Also, where reductions in time-to-market for a product or service are important, Internet research has the ability to greatly reduce data collection times.</li> </ul> <ul> <li> <b>New</b> <b>technology</b> enables consumers to <b>block ads</b>.</li> </ul> <ul> <li> Infoseek has created <b> UltraMatch -smart banners</b>.&nbsp; How do you learn what the user likes?&nbsp; <b>Behavior patterns/recognition </b>is being stored in the users cookies, infoseek extracts this information when you use their browser, then based on that information, they will show you only ads which will be of interest to you and what you will most likely click through.</li> </ul> <ul> <li> Fewer users are clicking on banners! But <b>profiler is one of the latest trends in banner placement</b>. Behavior profiler uses a  <b>smart computer</b> to tract banner clicks and from that information it makes an educated guess on whom else would like to see this ad.&nbsp; It then goes out through all the cookies and displays the ad to only the users that have the same type of profile. Similar to the behavior/pattern recognition, the <b>profiler </b>distributes the ad to only those most likely to be interested in seeing the ad.</li> </ul> <ul> <li> Going back to the cookies and the ordering information, modern technology had given us the ability to  Ask for it or even part of it and they will come . Let them do the shopping for me? <b>Personal shopping list</b>?&nbsp; Why not!&nbsp; Look at Amazon.com marketing techniques.&nbsp; Once you order a book by a certain author they will email you every time that author publishes a new book.</li> </ul> <ul> <li> <b>Virtual Warehouse  data banks </b> means the Grocer.com s of the world, in a competitive market, now have the ability to e-mail me that my coffee is low or the toner on my printer needs changing and I need more diapers.&nbsp; <b>This is marketing in the 21st century! </b>And the competition is going to eat you alive if you blink twice.&nbsp; It s no longer about that niche or that perfect home page; it s about you reaching your customer in their home or office selling them what they already need,  when they need it .</li> </ul> <ul> <li> <b>Consumer infomediaries</b> are a <b>third party search engine</b> collecting data about its users and acting on the user's behalf to gain benefits on the Internet. This technology can capture and handle the tons of data necessary to create true one-to-one communication. Internet Access is free as long as users allow the infomediary to monitor their behavior.&nbsp; Example: freeonline.com.au, PrivaSeek.com This new technology saves the consumer time and money. It also opens the door for advertisers to target messages in a way never possible before. <b>In the new millennium, portals will be forced to offer much more than individual stock quotes and horoscopes</b>. They will become infomediaries, gigantic databases whose sole purpose is to collect and use consumer data in the most effective way to achieve true one-to-one communication between brands and consumers.</li> </ul> <p><br><b><font size="3">Broadband access (DSL, cable modems, satellite)</font></b> <ul> <li> High speed Internet access from home is currently only a tiny percentage of the overall market, but it is the tide that will lift the Internet ad industry. Internet advertising makes up only about one percent of the total U.S. advertising market, and <b>high-speed </b>access is a technological development that may cause online advertising to really take flight. <b>High-speed Internet access</b> is a major factor that will allow for <b>more creativity, more flexibility, and more revenue</b>.</li> </ul> <p><br><b><font size="3">Internet Radio Advertising</font></b> <ul> <li> Some 30 percent of all Internet users have listened to Internet radio within the last three months. Right now, Internet radio advertising is not a major issue, but it is making a ripple. <b>There is no question that webcasting is booming</b> and that tens of millions of Americans are tuning in. However, a number of factors are harming its revenue potential. National broadcasts of local ads, low bandwidth, the fact that for many it's just a change of appliance, and other factors are preventing streaming radio from becoming a giant factor in the U.S. ad industry. However, it can present good opportunities for those in the know.</li> </ul> <p><br><b><font size="3">From freebies to rewards programs</font></b> <ul> <li> One reason the Web has grown so quickly is its reputation as a great place to <b>get something for nothing</b>. More and more companies are not only offering freebies such as content or freeware but are <b>paying people to visit their web sites!</b> These are called "rewards programs" that give users points, similar to airline frequent-flier miles, for viewing pages and buying things.</li> </td> </table> <br>Sure, we missed something! Your comments and feedback are welcome. email us at <a href="mailto: info@ecominfocenter.com">info@ecominfocenter.com</a> <br><br>Thank you for your time,<br><br> Slim Baltagi & Pamela Hyder<br><br> <a href="http://www.eComInfoCenter.com">eCommerce Info Center</a><br><br> <a href="#top"><img src="../images/top-of-page.gif" border="0" align="right"></a></a><br><img src="../images/line-blue.gif" border="0" width="600" height="6"> <a NAME="sponsor"></a><b>3. WHY NOT SPONSOR THE NEXT ISSUE?</b> <p>By sponsoring the "eCommerce Analyst", you expose your message to our growing web community of subscribers interested in eCommerce and readers of this issue from our archives. You also help us to subsidize the cost of providing you with this free newsletter and also to improve it. Your message will also be kept beyond the issue which will be archived in eComInfoCenter.com. If you are interested, please <a href="mailto:info@ecominfocenter.com" target="_new">drop us a line</a> to know more about our <b>special offer</b> to you. <br><br><a href="#top"><img src="../images/top-of-page.gif" border="0" align="right"></a><br><img src="../images/line-blue.gif" border="0" width="600" height="6"><br><br> <a NAME="submission"></a><b>4. ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS</b> <p>To make "The eCommerce Analyst" more reflective of the broad array of expertise available on the Web, please submit an article for publication.&nbsp; "The eCommerce Analyst" is an informative newsletter that "analyzes the current state and future directions of conducting business online". Your article may take any form: how to's, explanations, technological developments, book reports, personal experience. Articles should be optimized for online reading.&nbsp; If your article is accepted, it will be published in eCommerce Info Center web site. A description of your service or your web site, written by you, will accompany the article. Send all submissions to <a href="mailto:pamela@ecominfocenter.com">Pamela Hyder</a> <br>Thank you. <br><br> <a href="#top"><img src="../images/top-of-page.gif" border="0" align="right"></a><br><img src="../images/line-blue.gif" border="0" width="600" height="6"><br><br> <a NAME="Thank"></a><B>5. THANK YOU</b> <p>Once again, we thank all of you for joining and giving us the opportunity to "speak" to you and build a relationship for the benefit of us both. Along with your fellow subscribers to "The eCommerce Analyst", you already form a web community of people with common interests in eCommerce from over <b>70 countries</b> from the five continents and growing. Again, we thank you for your interest. <p>If you are happy with "The eCommerce Analyst" and would like to benefit more and encourage our efforts, please&nbsp; spread the word about it.&nbsp; Forward this email and recommend our newsletter to one or two of your preferred friends, colleagues or contacts asking them to enroll in our mailing list <a href="http://ecominfocentre.listbot.com">http://ecominfocentre.listbot.com</a>. Thank you! <br><br><br> </td> </table> <table width="606" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" bgcolor="ffffff"> <tr> <td> <p align="right"><a href="#top"><img src="../images/top-of-page.gif" border="0"></p> </td> </table> <table width="606" height="6" border="0" align="center" background="../images/bkgd-blue.gif"> <tr> <td width="600"> <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="# 00000" size="2">Copyright © 2000 Global eCommerce Services LLC. All rights reserved.</font></p> </TD> </table> <br><br> </body> </html>